The Joy of God's Healing

Dear Friends,

My thoughts from Mark 5: 1-20.

Yes, I am a little late today.  Me and my computer.  All was typed and ready for you just before 8 AM when I lost all that was done.  Had to leave for Mass.  More than an hour trying to get this into print this afternoon.

If you can, a read of the Mark citation above will help you better understand what the Holy Spirit put into my mind yesterday when I started preparing this letter to you.  What went on between Jesus and the deranged man and others like him can be helpful to us in our needs.  This is not to insinuate that you are or have been deranged!

As I read the story over several times, I found myself focusing on the experience of the deranged man coming to Jesus for help in ridding himself of the pain he must have been suffering.  Here was a man to whom I found a linking.  I do not hang out in cemeteries or find myself shackled by chains.  But I do recognize that in my life there have been times when I have found myself struggling to maintain a close relationship with God, with Jesus and at time with the Holy Spirit.  I honestly assume that you have encountered the same experience.  We have allowed ourselves to become shackled by one bad habit or another.

Finally, when I am smart enough to realize I need the help of God, I come before Jesus, just as did the deranged man.  "Get me out of this cemetery and the chains that shackle me," is my prayer to Jesus.  Continuing to break free through my own effort but with the added help of my brother, Jesus, my world begins to change.  You know it could be laziness; it could be letting myself become so absorbed in a project that I let prayer slide or get very little attention.  Whether something not terribly significant or a habit or practice that creates difficulty between God and me, I know that all I need to do is turn to Jesus Christ.  And, just as quickly as he healed the deranged man, He will turn his healing powers to me and to you.

When I realize that I have been given new strength by my Savior, I sense the joy of new freedom.  I have overcome one thing or another and realize what a blessing it is to have our God, our brother, Jesus, as friend.

And, you know, when you go through this healing, your joy most likely instigates a feeling in your heart to share with others the greatness of God.  When the healed man asks Jesus if can go with him to wherever he is going, Jesus refuses his request.  Why?  Because Jesus knows that the man is alive again with faith.  Jesus tells him to return to his family and friends, his community.  There he should tell the people how God came into his life with such healing and love.  It is the feeling I experience each time I am absolved of my own sins when I take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

I want others to know how great our God is.

Imagine what our world would be like if all of us were able to share with others not an account of our sinfulness but an account of how willing God is to free us from what shackles us.  Try it sometime.  You will feel even happier and freer.  What a blessing!

Oremus pro invicem! [Please get used to this "sign off" from me:  it means "Let us pray for each other"]

Fr. Milt

And So The Christmas Season Concludes

Dear Friends,

To fully understand the title of this communication to you,  if you have about five minutes, read St. Luke's gospel chapter 1:5 through to Chapter 2:39.   The events and words in this part of  Luke's gospel make up what theologians and scripture scholars call The Infancy Narratives.  These few verses are packed with so many events we hear about in the Christmas season.  Read all at once, these events invite us to see the whole story and to realize what God is doing for us even today.

So, Mary and Joseph drop the curtain on the Christmas story by bringing their new born son to the temple according to Jewish law.  And once again the Christmas message is proclaimed by the elder man at the temple:  here is the true light of the world for all nations and forever!

29“Now, Master, you may let your servant go

in peace, according to your word,

30for my eyes have seen your salvation,^j

31which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,

32a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and glory for your people Israel.”^k

For me, reading through the above mentioned verses, there was a renewed sense of the power of God's plans for all of us.  Luke, responding to the inspirational gift of the Holy Spirit, tells us how we  came to be Christians.  This story is the foundational beginning of God's Church.

I am captured by the bookends to the story:  senior citizens --Elizabeth and Zechariah then Simeon and the prophetess Anna-- begin and conclude the story of the coming to us of the Son of God.

Before 1969 this feast day of the Presentation was known as the Purification of Mary.  It was always a day marked by processions -- people bringing to the church candles for use in their homes as well as candles to be used in the liturgies at the altar.  In a way it is a fitting way to conclude the Christmas season:  Jesus is brought to the temple for the first time.  The "Light of the world" is presented to the world in the words of Simeon and Anna and our Church blesses candles that may remind us in each liturgical celebration at the altar that we are in the presence of the true Light of the World.

May Jesus be the light in your life!  May the candles you see lighted at the altar remind you of the presence  of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.

God be with you!  Oremus pro invicem! (Let us pray for one another!

Fr. Milt

Miserando atque Eligendo!

Because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him!

Dear Friends,

The  Latin phrase is from the coat-of-arms of a pope who has captured the attention and admiration of so many people of our times, Pope Francis.  Reading the account of King David's dalliance with Bathsheba, the Pope's motto came to mind.  These words come from a sermon delivered by 18th century writer, the Englishman, Saint Bede.   This holy man used these words to describe Jesus' encounter with one of the tax collectors of the town, another man who became a saint, Matthew.

As most of us who hear confessions know, sin sometimes becomes a heavy weight in the heart and soul of the sinner.  Perhaps this is the experience Bede confronted in his dealings with a sinner.  Regardless of the actual event, "miserando atque eligendo" are three powerful words that remind us that our God is not only a merciful dispenser of forgiveness but one who sees deeply into the hearts of sinners and knows the potential implanted in each human being.

Despite his immoral behavior David possessed a sincere desire for a true reconciliation with Yahweh,   Likewise Matthew, apparently a tax collector no different from the others of his profession, moved to an awareness of his " professional" sins, was filled with an awareness of Yahweh's mercy.  Likewise God chose him for work that would bring many from sinfulness to living the life of Jesus.

If you ever become burdened by sin, remember "miserando atque eligendo."  When God created you, he entrusted much to you.  We certainly will not be a king or a queen.  But we can be the recipient of the remarkable and peace-filled gift of forgiveness and lead others to know a loving and caring God.

God be with you and let us prayer for on another.

Fr.  Milt

Successes for What?

After Nathan had spoken to King David, 
the king went in and sat before the LORD and said, 
“Who am I, Lord GOD, and who are the members of my house, 
that you have brought me to this point?

Dear Friends,

These words from 2 Samuel 7: 18-19 bring to my mind and heart what it is like to sit in silence before The Lord.  Here David is reflecting on his successes and what the prophet has told him about God's plans for him.  So, I ask myself "What is it that God has promised me for time in my life?  This is a question each of us has to ask of ourselves:  "What are my accomplishments intended to be for me to carry out God's will for my life?"

It is one thing to recognize my achievements and successes.  It is very different for me to discover why God gave my so many graces in my life.  I have to be careful:  God did not give me successes to hide them.  Each of them is meant to be an instrument we place in God's hands to serve others.

A noble follower of Jesus is not simply to be a person of goodness.  Our giftedness from God is meant to be graces that enable us to be evangelizers!

Don't allow God's plans for you to be frightening.  If you let weaknesses hold you back, remember St. Paul's words:  in our weakest moments God achieves the most in us.

God be with you and let us pray for one another.

Fr.. Milt

The Soil of the Soil

Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.
And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots. 

Dear Friends,

The soil needed for growth of the small seed was insufficient.  I don' t believe I myself have thought too often about the " depth of the soil" in my spiritual life."

So what makes the right amount of soil?  If I need to repair a lack of soil in the yard, I make a stop at a nursery or a store like Home Depot.  But where do I get the soil to to give the needed depth to my spiritual life?

Well, to be honest, my immediate thought is to find something that requires "doing."  The rosary.  Stations of the Cross.  Indeed such devotion ale are good starters.  However, doing these activities does not afford what might be best:  sitting in quiet with a scripture verse or story like what is inserted above. 

Even a short time with Jesus, considering the state of my soul, my relationship with God.  This is when I take the soil I have in my spiritual life and increase it, till it and quietly allow it to nurture who I am.  This is more difficult than a rosary, the stations, or reading from a book of prayers.  Isn't it?

Yes, devotionals can help your soul but their strength comes especially when they are built upon a relationship you have with Jesus in personal prayer and reflection.  We need to put aside the "driven" culture we have accepted into our lives.  We need to let some honest "laziness" open our hearts to God!

God be with you.

Fr. Milt

What Shall I Build With a You?

Dear Friends,

     During one of my consults with a Trappist monk who is also a priest, we discussed just how challenging it is for us to discover what it is that God wants from each person in his/her life?  The Samuel reading for today's liturgy reminded me of my conversation.  

     Today most of us have come to recognize that we are gifted with more than one specific talent or skill.  But what is it that God wants us to build for himself with our talents?  How do I best serve God in the circumstances and situations that are the venues in my life?

     The little part of the world that I find around me needs me especially as God wants me.  How much peace and strength do I bring to myself and others when I understand God's will for me!

     David thought Yahweh expected him to "build a house," with lumber etc.  It took some time for the great king to realize that God wanted him to "build a house," a house built with people.  God wanted David to establish a dynasty, that kind of house.  Would we ever have had the Book of Psalms had David insisted on being the builder of God's temple?

      Am I building the kind of "house" God hopes I will realize as his will for me? 

Psalm 89

Dear Friends,

A short letter with focus on what you should know about King David.  How often we hear about this earthly King, this man who composed for us so many insights of God's relationship to his people.

Davis was appointed God.  We learn this through the writing of prophets.  In 2 Samuel 5:1-7,10 we read about the term of office David had.  He began at age 30 and ended his rule of the Jewish people when he was 70 years old.

Think of these words to David that God has spoken to each of us in many and varied ways.

R. My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him.

Trusting in God!  You begin a new week.  Remember these words from Psalm 89.  Let them open your heart to a week building a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ, our King.  He calls to us in these days of ours to bring his message, his love to those who have turned from him as well as to those who do not know of his goodness and care.

“I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him,

That my hand may be always with him, and that my arm may make him strong.”

You are no different than David.  Meet Jesus again today.  Let him take your hand with your trust!

'Til the next time, God be with you

Fr. Milt

3rd Sunday Ordinary Time

All that we read from the daily Mass lectionary's selections point us in one direction:  God calls each of us to be messengers of the gospel.

During my annual retreat which just ended, my director, a trusted man of God, spoke with me about my life and how I use my talents to be God's messenger.

There are so many people hurting in our communities today.  How do I, how do you reach out anyone go those folks?  Do I truly care about any of these folks?

In my life I know that many think "He is a priest.  He is close to God.  He does not find himself 'hurting.'"  My friends there is no priest who is not challenged by the realities in our Church and/or society today.  Who lights up our world?  Hopefully most of my brothers see that it is in serving the needs of God's people that there is an answer, there in. Sunrise each morning.

Today's responsorial psalm is a marvelous little prayer that can guide us through the day.  But never forget being a light to others brings the SON into our lives.

Second Sunday Ordinary Time: Do I/We Really Care?

The reflection for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary time will be presented in the Ignatian style … as you found last week’s reflection.  Several people contacted me and appreciated the traditional Jesuit practice of presenting talks with the three point practice as has been the Jesuit tradition.

The First Point.  Christians are called to become a light for the whole world.

— the frequent message of Pope Francis.

— not a new message:  Isaiah, in the first reading, shares his vision that the Jewish people were to become a light to the world.

— the reason for this challenge to us:  to let all the world know that God gave us his Son to bring about salvation for everyone.

— in New Testament times there was a similar voice calling the people with the same message:  John the Baptist

— his message again, the same.  The one who baptized Jesus, the same Jesus the people would see walking and talking with the people, dining out with some of the people, healing many, this man Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  His is a universal message.

—- does any of the above impact your life?  Does it impact the world in any way today?

2. The Second Point.  Is there reason to hope, to think, that God’s will can be accomplished in our world THROUGH our efforts even though we are but a small number of people in the world?  A series of questions follows:

—  are the Christians in our world interested in Jesus Christ or even the Gospels? 

—  are YOU genuinely interested in Jesus Christ or the Gospels?

—  How many Catholics have a bible in their homes that is regularly used?

—  Why is membership in all the main-line churches declining each year?

—  Is a genuine personal relationship with the Lamb of God of any value to you and your brothers and sisters of the Christian faith?

—  When Catholics say “I believe ….” each Sunday in the Profession of Faith, the Creed, does it mean anything or is it just another routine prayer said each Sunday?

—  WHY IS IT TRUE THAT MANY CHRISTIANS REALLY DON’T CARE????

3.  The Third Point.  What do the answers to these questions signify for you and me?

—  to be a true believer today, to believe beyond mere repetition of words that we can be like a torch that lights up the area around us, wherever we might be, giving true witness to Jesus Christ in the presence of others.

—  When others come upon us whether family members, friends or colleagues or even those who do not know us, do they think or say, :I am in the presence of someone , like John the Baptist, who has not difficulty in speaking aloud about Jesus Christ?  Do I give others my witness that Jesus is very important to me and how I live my life?

— Do others speak of me or you as a person who adopts the values of Jesus Christ in my or your life?

—  Without Jesus Christ do you have a faith to declare, a Lord to follow?

—  We must begin in our homes, with our families, to teach that the Lamb of God we profess whenever we attend a church service is truly someone of immense value to us?

—  We need to remember an old adage:  “Actions speak louder than words.”

—  Perhaps each week every genuine follower of Jesus should develop an examination of the days of the prior week with one question:  Have I tried to bring Jesus to the world?  How?  Did my life proclaim Jesus Christ is my Lord?

Please note:  Today, Saturday, I leave for my annual retreat

at the Trappist Monastery in Spencer, MA.  

Would you offer up a prayer or two for me during the week of this retreat?

I promise that I will do likewise for all you who read this blog.

It may happen that I do not get a reflection prepared for next Sunday.

I will not be returning to Lanham until Tuesday, the 28th.

Baptism of Jesus: Defining Moment

Today, for your weekend reflection and prayer, let me suggest you consider all or one particular point I am suggesting.  It is the truly Ignatian style of meditation: using three points (not necessarily having to complete all three in your prayer time) and concluding with a time of personal conversation with God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit or the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Today’s readings are as follows: 

Is 42:1-4, 6-7; (2) Acts 10:34-38; Mt 3;13-17

First Point:  Defining moments in one’s life:  experiences that provide clear visions of what life should be at a particular time in one’s history.  For a few moments, recall (and perhaps worthwhile to list) significant “defining moments” in your life.  Perhaps you have seen your life’s mission in the following:  a decision to marry a particular person; learning of a first and/or subsequent pregnancies and the birth of a child and later children; facing a terminal illness in one’s self or another; a major promotion at work;  assisting and offspring, relative or friend who reveals to you his/her homosexuality; the loss of a marriage partner to death or divorce, etc, etc, etc.  What context did your defining moment(s) give to your life especially if they occurred unexpectedly?

Second Point:  Jesus’ “defining moment” occurred at the River Jordan.  Recounted by each of the four evangelists is the baptism of Jesus by his cousin, John, also an itinerant preacher.  Jesus’ request to John to perform the ceremony of his (Jesus’) baptism is a signal to us that his Jesus’ public life would be marked by actions that are humble and unexpected.  Allowing John to baptism him, Jesus affirms John and his mission.  Do not overlook that our Sacrament of Baptism is the moment of one’s acceptance into the mystery of our life as a child of God.  Has your own baptism or the baptism of your child(ren) or the time of your accepting the role of Godparent been one of those “defining moments” in your life?

Third Point:  Life is filled with the routine … from the moment of awaking each day until the beginning of regenerative sleep at day’s end.  Some times this pattern of sameness allows us to overlook God’s gift of a “defining moment” and its consequences in our lives.  Someone might ask for help, especially someone who has, perhaps, been distance from you.  You may see a young person hurting him/herself and your heart moves you to talk sympathetically because you may have been in the same spot once in your life.  We must be aware of the deeply powerful spirituality of moments like these.  Can you recall similar moments in your life?  Have you wondered why you saw such a moment?  When moments like these bring either confusion or lack of clarity, it is the time to stop and listen for the voice of God, the Holy Spirit working in your heart.  It is the same God who spoke to Jesus as he experienced his moment of Baptism.  It is the voice of God to Jesus that all in his life would be directed by the Holy Spirit.  This same Holy Spirit, in these defining moments, is offering guidance.  We might ask “Guidance for what? or Guidance where?”  Defining moments are  powerful moments calling us to learn what God longs for and desires to be present in our lives.  It is in these moments that we must realize that these moments are meant to give us assurances of God’s abundance of love which he wishes to shower upon us.

Now time for some quiet and personal prayer.   Conclude with an Our Father or Hail Mary. 

Octave of the Nativity and Solemnity of the Mother of God

While searching my heart for thoughts to share with you today, I found myself digging in reflection gold mines for help.  We have so many different feast days honoring the Mother of God, what can be said on January 1st that might capture my heart and mind for you.  Lying in my bed very early this morning - a sign that I retired before Americans celebrated the first midnight of the new year here on our eastern shore - I continued to dig in my heart and mind.  It was still very early when I decided to go to what I consider the “Creighton 911 for Preachers”, the Jesuit University’s “help” line for those seeking insight into the readings and feast for each day.  It was there that I discovered gold, genuine spiritual gold  Let me share with you this gift.

The writer, a woman, wife and mother, one-time teacher and now administrator, presented magnificent thoughts for this day.  I am sure that her words will be spoken throughout the English-speaking world today by preachers who turned to the Creighton University’s On-line Ministries.  Because I did not seek the author’s permission to print her name, let me share some of “Mary’s” (the author’s baptismal name) thoughts that stirred my heart.  You may wish to read her reflection in full. If so, you should Goggle : Creighton University Daily Reflections and move to the January 1st reflection.

“Mary” begins by calling us to notice:  “… this is a great way to start our New Year!  We continue to celebrate the Incarnation, the Word Made Flesh, Jesus, and we honor Jesus’ mother, our Blessed Mother.”

Moving forward “Mary” says boldly: “We need this woman — throughout the year!”  Right on “Mary!”  She calls us to consider the very many honors and prayers that are brought to the Mother of God not just today but everyday  since that day when Mary said “Fiat”, let it be done.  Consider the many novenas, rosaries and the Church’s proclamations (the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption) that affirm for us that she is Queen of Heaven.  With a real sense of conviction, “Mary” assures the reader that Mary does listen to us when we pray to her.  And this contemporary writer assures us that Mary, Mother of God, is “Advocate, Mediator, Guide, Role Model, Comforter, and always a real Woman (italics mine), Mother and even Sister and Friend to us throughout our lives” even at the final “hour of our death.”

Throughout the year we honor Mary with several feasts days.  Today, however, our honor is given to her as Mother of God.  And author “Mary” writes: “I notice today that her Motherhood is the heart and reason for all our attention to and claims on Mary throughout the centuries.”  Think on this for a few moments during the day.

“Today’s Mary” proclaims “We need this woman!”  Furthermore, she notes, it is our very human nature that demands “a womanly figure to honor and pray to.”  Isn’t this a reality that has been lost to a degree in our times and Church?  There is “a basic human need across time and culture for a motherly female figure.” 

And what is it that all children, like ourselves, need: “… Mother, Mediator, or Queen — and also for a real woman who is personal, intimate Mother, guide, model and friend.”

“Today’s Mary” calls to mind for us that scripture texts used in the liturgy for today’s feast where we read “Mary kept all these things, reflection on them in her heart.”  That is the model we might follow not just today but daily:  taking the time to use Sacred Scripture as a source of inspiration and guidance from the Holy Spirit and time to have a “coffee chat” with the Mother of our God.

So, as we begin a new year, as we seek to adjust to saying two thousand fourteen or to remembering to put the numbers 2014 on checks or at the top of letters, let us turn to Mary for ourselves and for other sinners as we pray Mary’s prayer “now and at the hour of our death.”  And so, let me conclude with “today’s Mary’s” final sentence in her reflection:  “We need this woman now, each day, and to the certain end of ‘now’”.

As you know it is not part of my usual writing to quote one person so extensively.  The reflection I discovered on my dig early this morning was so powerful for me that I felt the need to share many of “today’s Mary’s” thoughts with you.  This Creighton University woman certainly opened up my sleepy eyes and mind to an extraordinary perception of Mary, Mother of 

God!  And so, I say, “Thank you “today’s “Mary,” for your gift to all who read your heart and soul today.  You have brought this priest to realizing how much Mary is needed in his life!

Family: Fidelity not Perfection

1.  Why this feast day?

One might ask, "Why do we celebrate a day honoring or recalling the Holy Family?"  An answer well might be "So that we can learn how Jesus grew up, shaped as a man by Mary and Joseph.  This feast calls each of us to think about living with our family.  Pope Francis recently noted that "family is where we learn to live with others despite our differences and to belong to one another."  Today's readings are about our we belong to each other.

2.  Sirach and Paul

From these readings we are taught that family involves more than loving one another.  Even with a father's mind fails him, we are charged to take care of him.  The person who reveres his/her mother stores up riches.  When we take care of the elderly, our acts of love and charity "will not be forgotten" by God when final judgement occurs in our lives.  Our attention to parents especially earns for us God forgives of our debt to him for our sinfulness.

In Paul's letter to the Colossians, we read how this great apostle views the various virtues we need to practice toward not just our parents but toward each other.  It is evident that Paul had some experience in dealing with family.  He strongly encourages his audiences to practice virtues that at times are quite difficult in family situations.  But he is clear how we are to be "bearing with each other and forgiving one another."

3.  St. Matthew's gospel today.

We are placed with Mary and Joseph as they flee from the threats of Herod.  Joseph had a dream that gave him the direction and strength to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt for a while.  Consider what they were doing for their new child.  The royal edict was to destroy all male children under the age of two to make sure that their child would not live.  So they traveled some distance without any comfort.  They moved to a new land; to new languages; and to new customs.  Not easy for sure.

They held each other throughout the journey and while living in Egypt.  A work of a sculptor in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception portrays a time of rest for the family on the way to Egypt.  Mary holding Jesus close to her body and Joseph lying next to Mary and the child.  Holding each other seems to be an innate reaction to human tragedy.  Think of pictures or scenes you have experienced dealing with deep pain or loss:  there is no shaking of hands when greeting each other in those moments, there is only hugs in silence and usually tears.  We even grasp the bodies of some who are not exactly living as we might like, but none the less there is in tragic moments that inner drive to give comfort to someone who is suffering.  This is where we learn that family life is not about perfection.  Rather it is about our faithfulness, our fidelity to each other in these difficult moments.

This day of looking at one family and then at ourselves in the mirror of our family live teaches us that  family life involves even respecting at times the messy bedrooms or the scattered dirty socks left here or there in a house, or even the tube of tooth paste left uncapped on the bathroom sink's shelf.

Family life demands of us much patience, forgiveness and understanding.  Family life rewards us when we are down and out, when we have come upon difficult times.  Perhaps a great need in our culture at this time is for us to strengthen the love we have first and foremost for our families.

Christmas Day

[Please note:  the following is the homily that will be delivered to a number of

Jeuite Alumni and their families at Georgetown Prep at midnight Christmas Day.]

Good morning!  Merry Christmas!  Peace be with you!

Let’s begin with just who am I since this hallowed campus was never a part of my history.  Former Jesuit priest; now priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, retired and doing more than when serving as a Pastor etc.; with you this evening because my dentist bartered a hygienist appointment and a dinner.  So now let’s get to some serious thinking about this nativity feast that brings you together in prayer and fraternity. In true Jesuit style, the remarks that follow will be presented as “three points.”  See:  Still very much the Jesuit at heart.

The First Point:  This Christmas let me call you, “miles Christi” —

a soldier of Christ if you have forgotten the days of Latin.  You were trained to be with Ignatius Loyola a follower of Jesus Christ. I call you “miles Christi” because your Church needs you to see and become involved in the renewal.  And true Jesuit that he is,  Pope Francis through word and action, again so Ignatian, has given strong impetus to the universal call for a new evangelization. Along with the Holy Father, we, all of us, are called to be one with the Holy Spirit in this new 

Pentecost, this new renewal that is being born in the Church.  The drive for the renewal that the Holy Spirit has put into the mind and heart of Pope Francis actually had its foundation in Bethlehem when Jesus began what might be called the first renewal.  This is what Jesus’ birth was all about: his accepting the Father’s will that from this pauper’s birth scene to the horror of a Good Friday with the purpose of bringing salvation to humankind.

True sons of Ignatius, as most of you are, you called by this newborn Son of God to invest time in learning and sharing what it means to carry the gospel to those who accept it, to those who reject it and to those who do not know it.  Let the gospel become for you a style of life that challenges so much of the lifestyle in our society today.  Come to know the gospel messages of a Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Let their heartfelt words become a source of true joy in your life; words of the man Jesus that are meant to make a difference in your life and mine.

The Second Point:  As Pope Francis wrote recently, “Goodness always tends to spread.”  It is the notion that goodness cannot be repressed that has encouraged the Bishop of Rome to discuss with the Church at large that evangelization takes place in obedience to the missionary mandate of Jesus:  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations …”  I believe that we should take note of this command.  However we must recognize that it is nothing new.  In the birth of Jesus Christ we see the beginning of genuine missionary activity that will become the basis, the foundation, for the efforts that mark the lives not only of the Church but of each of you and all others who seek to follow Jesus Christ.  On this day when Jesus was born, the name Christian became ours not in a courthouse but in a simple stable.  The title is akin to a universal passport as well as a universal responsibility to all our sisters and brothers.  In this early hour of the morning we quietly in our hearts renew our commitment to follow the Jesus.

As missionaries, aligned with the Son of God, we might look to this annual celebration of his birth as a calling to discern and pledges to  follow the path the Lord points out for us in going “from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the gospel.”

Let the celebration of Christmas be an occasion when we can renew  our own missionary vocation that comes to us as an invitation from Jesus Christ in our Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist.  Furthermore, take some time to consider these words from the First Letter of St. John.

Whoever is born of God conquers the world.

And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.

The Third Point:  Our faith is a particular experience that is peculiar to each of us here this morning.  I encourage each of you not to confuse “our faith” with “our religion.”  Faith is my personal relationship with God the Father, Jesus his Son and the Holy Spirit.  When I look upon a manger scene today, at the young child lying on hay or in his mother’s arms, and find myself praying or placing myself with Jesus in Bethlehem, actually I am affirming or reaffirming my personal relationship with God.  

Now fear and distress did not shake Mary or Joseph in their faith or in fulfilling their God-given vocation.  It did not shake St. Ignatius in all that he endeavored to accomplish.  It was not their religion that enabled them and many like them in the centuries since the first Christmas to live their faith.  We are no different:  I believe faith is a matter of a personal relationship with God.  Our faith is what gives us the strength for fidelity and loyalty to Jesus Christ.  Let this night and this encounter with Jesus Christ be for you a renewal of that fidelity to your faith, your personal relationship with God.  Again hear words from the Evangelist, St. John, that stress the importance of our faith. 

Who is victor over the world

but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Let me begin to conclude now with a challenge to all here present on this Christmas morning, again using the heart and mind of Pope Francis.

The Holy Father wrote that the Catholic Church is not a fortress.  Only when we have the fortitude and courage to move outside its walls, when we meet the poor, the lonely, the mentally challenged, the elderly sick, the confused and frightened immigrants of our generation, the gays, lesbians and transgendered among us, the hurting divorce, the marginalized of so many different kinds, only then we reach out to them as true missionaries, men and women of faith, can we share in the true freedom of God.

This is what we are challenged to consider when we look at a new-born child, resting on straw in a manger, who would in just a few years after his birth would become a man who would bring salvation to every human being from his throne atop Calvary Hill.  This is the mystery we celebrate today.  This is the gift God the Father has given each of us.  This is our faith; this is our challenge.  When you lift high the cross of Jesus Christ, you authenticate the mission of the Son of God for yourself and for others.  Let this Christmas Day be a day when once again you renew the pledge all Jesuit students learned:  Ad maioren Dei Gloriam … All for the Greater Glory of God.

Again, Merry Christmas and, please God, bless all who are here early this morning and their families.

The Signs of the Kingdom

Fourth Sunday of Advent

December 22, 2013

In the first reading from the Liturgy of the Word, we encounter moments we God asks Ahaz to ask for a sign from God and Isaiah speaks to the house of David about wearying God with so many requests to God and that the Lord will give … this sign:  the virgin shall conceive and then bear a son. (Isaiah 7:10-14)

Let this be a starting point for this homily as we are but some 61+ hours before we encounter that sign mention in Isaiah 600 years before the actual event.  We repeat this event every year on December 25th.  When Jesus was conceived and then born, it was a new beginning.  Were you alive before Jesus was born, would you have written the Jesus epic as we encounter it in the scriptures as well as in our own times.

Would you have had this child Isaiah foretold, this Son of God, this Redeemer, would you have had him conceived and born of an unwed mother?  Would you have portrayed him as being homeless when he was born?  His life, would you have painted a picture of a some times refugee?  Surely you would not have thought such a Redeemer would face torture and crucifixion.  Who would believe your facts if you added a resurrection from the dead?

This is now how anyone except a prophet would have written the predictions of a Savior for humankind.  But that was centuries ago.  Today, however, we do not celebrate a beginning as the 

Bethlehem story was.  In our times we live in the Kingdom of God on the face of our earth.  If you did not know the story, how would you describe this Kingdom were you asked to describe what the Kingdom would look like?  

Surely you would incorporate what Isaiah and some of the other prophets had written:  Jesus this Savior would be a sign of the Father’s love for us.  You would also probably tell stories about saints, lucky people, joyous events, trusting people.  Would you incorporate some of the surprises that we know to be what Jesus did?  What surprises?  Would the poor be promised so much goodness from God in your story?  Would you portray women who became single mothers?  Would gang members have any part of your vision of God’s Kingdom?  Would you enemies be taught as the object of your love in the Kingdom?   Indeed, few if any would include such people or events in the description of the Kingdom.  These individuals and events are signs, like the signs the prophets mentioned years before Jesus’ birth.  Why should the Kingdom be a place for such people?  Why?  Because all of us begin our lives as signs, signs that God loves us.  And we continue to be signs of His love when we fail, when we sin and seek God’s forgiveness and His pardon.

The real surprise for us to realize and accept in our Church today, the Kingdom among us, is, as Pope Francis has written, “a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because (it is a Church) 

that has been out on the streets rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and clinging to its own security.  What the birth of Jesus and the Church’s mission teach us is this:  God’s Kingdom is not a fortress!

Only when we have the fortitude and courage to move outside the walls, when we meet the poor, the lonely, the mentally challenged, the elderly sick, the confused and frightened immigrants of our generation, the marginalized of different kinds. only then can we share int he freedom of God.

Again this is not what most would have portrayed as the Kingdom of God.  It is not what some want the Kingdom of God to be today.  The reality is that all these different people, the ones who may make us feel uncomfortable at times, they are a part of our relationship with God.  Why?  Because, like you and me, they are children of God. 

This is what we are challenged to consider when we look at a new-born child, resting on straw in a manger, who would in just a few years become a man who would bring salvation to every human being from his throne atop Calvary Hill.  This is the mystery we celebrate in just a couple of days.  This is the gift God the Father has given each of one of us.

Rejoice! Rejoice in the Lord! Rejoice!

Gaudete!  Gaudete!  Gaudete!

The opening word of the Entrance Antiphon for this 3rd Sunday of Advent you may not hear recited. Singing of an entrance hymn takes priority.  But in the title for this posting, you have read it:  Rejoice!  What a marvelous command.  Rejoice because the birth of the Lord is near!

In Isaiah's words today we are reminded that God grants to "those whom the Lord has ransomed (that they) will meet with joy and gladness."  Likewise the evangelist, St. John, also mentions the gift of joy that can fulfill a lifetime.  "We are writing these things," writes John, "so that our joy may be complete."  In two other sentences found in John's writings, he quotes Jesus as speaking/praying "that your joy may be complete.”  So this joy is something out of the ordinary.

Hearing homilies and reading Church documents we can easily take "joy" phrases as just another repetition of what some might consider a space-filler.   While serving as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Gorgio Bergoglio described joy as "the fruit of the presence of the Holy Spirit."  It is important to note that joy is a gift and that gift comes to us in the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Furthermore, the Archbishop stated "Joy strengthens us in times of trials." Here note, as well, that the future Pope sees joy as an antecedent reality to being victorious in times of trail. Perhaps some among us feel their times of trial perdure for what seems to be an eternity.  If they would stop and consider this thought of the Holy Father, they might be able to understand that it is joy that exists in our hearts and minds which enables us to become victorious in times of testing.  What lies hidden within these words of Archbishop Bergoglio is this:  if joy is strong within our normal way of being, we should see that it is like a magic potion that can change our lives.

Our times no longer have the "strengthening" traditions that were the hallmark of strong, faithful and happy believers. Somehow what was meant to be a potion to help us in our faith and in our daily lives has been lost or forgotten.  In the place of genuine joy and the virtue of hope, we find an abundance of negativity, cynicism and their likes.  Joy is a consolation lost by many!  If, as some suggest, we believe that joy is a sign of harmony and unity, it is not surprising to hear that true joy is not a plentiful commodity in our marketplace of life.  

A renewed sense of joy brings to us a sense of astonishment. Consider, please, the sense of awe and astonishment younger children at this time of the year that is so evident in their excitement and expectations of Christmas morning.  Naive, yes, at least to a degree.  But these younger ones are teaching us about the value of joy and happiness that seem to send weak signals to our hearts hearts unless there is some extraordinary event or moment.  A dose or two of astonishment is a remedy for unhappiness.  It is this very sense in the hearts and minds of truly happy people that can become a genuine gift for those suffering loneliness or frustration.  What a Christmas present that would be when or where it is needed.

In our society a genuine and full sense of freedom is missing, is lacking.  I am speaking of the freedom that captures a heart when there is a definite intention or activity each day to recall that each of us is a child of God. Does this arouse astonishment in the heart?  It should give us a super-charged awareness of how blessed we are.  It should make joy a reality and give freedom a new power in our lives independent of the usual association with political or historic moments.  Have you ever encountered a joyful heart that is not at the same time a heart alive with freedom, the freedom that is the gift of the Holy Spirit?  Why do these realities come about?  Because, as Pope Francis and his spiritual advisor, St. Ignatius Loyola, have noted to peace as the basic component of joy.

As we draw closer to yet another celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, let us pray to be free of bitterness, independent of harmful gossip and free of the all-too-often moments of destructive criticisms of others.  Let us incorporate in daily living the powerful sentiment of St. Paul:  "Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth" (1 Cor 13: 6-7).  Do what you can to drive sadness from your heart.  Let us, during the Advent season and surely afterwards, come to make joy, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, a characteristic of our essence as a human being, as a child of God.  Open your heart to goodness and awe:  the reward to true joy!  Rejoice!  Rejoice in the Lord!

Summons to A Charged Advent

Here we are, another  December 1st, another first day of another Advent season.  In Isaiah we hear “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain,” and “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”  And St. Paul encourages us “to reject the darkness of sin” and live with the armor of light.  And St. Matthew reminds us “be prepared” because at an unknown hour the Lord will come.  These three men of the Bible are sounding for God a wake up call to the Christian world in particular this weekend.

For us to capture a new vibrant almost electric sensation of what is about to happen, we have to hear these biblical calls as a genuine summons:  leave the world of sin and move to a new day, a new life.  There has come into the culinary vocabulary a word and concept that might well serve our modern taste for something new, something exciting.  The word is “infusion.”  Chefs today “infuse” parts of a meal with flavorings that excite our taste buds.  Even bartenders offer traditional drinks with an “infused” flavor. The season of Advent, you might say, is our annual spiritual culinary moment when scripture reminds us to slow our pace and recall how God’s presence “infuses” not a meal or a drink but all of his created world.

So, there comes a question:  have you thought that this Advent season we begin today is truly an opportunity for you and me to “infuse” an awareness of God’s goodness in our lives?  If you have or have not, as Advent begins, let me suggest that today and tomorrow, we use the first two days of the season to take the time to mark for ourselves what darkness of sin needs to be removed to make way for the light of Christ.  

Let me share a thought, unusual and perhaps, beyond our normal, traditional manner of thinking.  But it is what came to my mind during some time in prayer and reflection very early Saturday morning. Did you ever think that God might be using the efforts of retailers to move the beginning of the Christmas season back a little each year as an opportunity for those who preach to take time to focus on a universal need in our society today, namely, that there is a crisis of faith and morality throughout the world brought about by indifference toward God, immorality and religious laziness?  It is simply a thought when we might take the time to face honestly so much tone-deafness to the Ten Commandments and, yes, ignorance towards the laws and practices of our religious affiliation.  Further, why is it that the average attendance in most American parishes for the weekend obligation to attend Mass only brings out 30% of most parish enrollments?

Just a thought to me from the Holy Spirit?

Advent is indeed a “wake up call” moment and the Fall Christmas Shopping Classic we witnessed on Friday might just be God using even the commercial early celebrations to bring Jesus back into our lives?  Perhaps we might realize that the days of Advent can be a move to a new vibrancy for living, for a truly powerful understanding of God’s presence in our lives and in our world.   We can stir up the world’s awareness of God’s presence “infused” in society, if we make the effort  ourselves during Advent to make known and lived the “reason for the season.” 

Christ the King Sunday

Good morning.  So, here we are celebrating another important and meaningful feast day in our Church.  I believe, if we are to benefit from the graces being made available to us, it is important to ask ourselves this question: How significant for our lives is what we celebrate?  This is an important question because I believe that for most of us, including myself, the reason meaning of the feast is either unknown, forgotten or of little interest.  So let me put before you the catechetical nuances of what we celebrate.

First, let’s consider this concept of king and kingdom.  We have not developed with such a concept in our experience in this country.  So what importance might we be missing?  Let me suggest that at the heart of Jesus’ teachings and his very life was the Kingdom of God and his role in this new concept.

The notion of a kingdom includes the reality that various communities and individuals who have accepted Jesus’ teaching about life under God.  Furthermore, we need to understand that not everyone has or will be able to accept this concept.  Nonetheless, in our Church we do believe that it is a concept or message that comes with validity and speaks of the very hopes and longings of all peoples in the very core of their being.

The way that God designed His Kingdom there is much reason for happiness and satisfaction to be sure.  At the same time, however, the very opposite, pain and suffering, are also a part of this Kingdom of God while we live in our bodies on this planet Earth.  Also not to be forgotten is the reality that we are sisters and brothers to one another.  This relationship opens up for us that some of these brothers and sisters are God’s representatives sent to help each of us in our personal growth.  At the 

same time, as well, others will - at some time or another - rely on one another to  be God’s messengers for our own personal growth.

In the words of St. Paul and St. Luke offered for our liturgy today we see the contrast between the duality of Jesus.  He is the image of God, the unseen Father, and at a later time he became the object of inhumane torture, even death as his naked body was nailed and displayed upon a wooden cross — for no other reason than to fulfill the Father’s will to provide for us a true reconciliation with the Father.

In these readings we encounter the fullness of the Kingdom in the awe and wonder of our King.  These words from the Preface Prayer speak to us what this means and what it means for us to be a part of his Kingdom.

“As King he claims dominion over all creation,

the he many present to you, his almighty Father,

an eternal and universal kingdom;

a kingdom of truth and life,

a kingdom of holiness and grace,

a kingdom of justice, love and peace.”

The Kingdom and the King are the Father’s gift to each of us.  However, each of us has the obligation to stand up and proclaim our allegiance to Him … every day!  We are called upon to join with all who recognize and live in the Kingdom of God to provide greater awareness of this Kingdom among our families, our communities, indeed throughout the world.

If your accept your place in God’s Kingdom, do not let it remain only with you.  From this year of Faith which concludes today, we have been given the opportunity to realize, I believe, how important the profession of our faith truly is when we encounter opportunities to being the message and love of Jesus Christ to those who have walked away from Him or who have never met Him.

33 Sunday of Ordinary Time

You Need Not Ask:  You Are A Child of God

Let me begin my words to you with a perception of Pope Francis I have gained during the last few weeks.  Clearly this man has given the Church, indeed the whole world, a new experience of Church leadership.  What is genuinely real is that this man has spoken about himself with great humility:  I am a sinner.  His statement is much more meaningful than when we have heard those same words from other leaders.  For me, however, what is more significant, very different from almost all of his predecessors is this:  Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, a sinner, speaks with a "dogmatic certainty  about each of us regardless of the linguistic accents that might differentiate us from one another, regardless of the color of one's skin that houses our very essence, regardless of personal status or possessions."  Francis the man believes with all his heart, mind and soul that "God is in every person's life ... even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else -- God is in this person's life."  "You can, you must try to seek God in every human life."

I share these thought about this new Bishop of Rome because the words in Luke's gospel today (Lk 21:5-19) this next to the last Sunday of Ordinary Time of our Church calendar speak about how Jesus' disciples and even many of us today look upon things such as magnificent temples or basilicas as structures that will last forever.  It is genuine human folly to believe that that what is in its own essence ephemeral will be standing forever.  But, I believe, what Pope Francis is teaching especially to our Church's leadership as well as each of us that we must not anchor our ultimate faith in what cannot endure forever except that reality that God is in every person we meet.  As long as there is a beating heart in any man, woman or young person, God is present in that person.

Like the apostles in today's gospel there is something that instigates human inquisitiveness:  we want to know about what is unknown.  There are so many experiences we have in our lives that elicit questions.  Already this year our young people are want to know when Santa Claus is coming and what are the gifts he will be bringing.  Adults want to know when the financial crises of our times will end.  Those men and women, who have come to this country and are the source of labor in so many occupations many citizens don't want, these people who, like ourselves, have God within their very being.  They hope and pray that our government will soon grant them citizenship but now feel forced to ask "When?"  Other adults who are forced to live on the periphery of our society because they are poor or because they may have some-sex attractions, these men and women are asking when societal exclusions that impact their lives be ended.  All we really need to know and believe are these two realities: (1) each of us, like monuments that fall and are shattered into dust, each of us will face the call from God that ends this earthly life.  "But when?"  (2) Each of us is a child of God, no different from anyone else who will at the end of our lives meet the God Jesus has taught us to love as He loves us.  It is the God who will bring us to his kingdom where we will then live eternally.  Likewise each of us is and will be forever God's child, his creation.

Let Mercy Come Alive in our Hearts.

Today's readings bring us to another consideration of the importance of mercy in our lives.  Likewise, for me, hearing the word "mercy", I am reminded that Pope Francis has made mercy a frequent mentione in his homilies and other speeches.  Surely, mercy is in short supply at a time when there is a genuine shortage of this virtue.

In the gospel reading today, we confront an ever so prominent example of mercy: the story of the prodigal son, his father and older brother.  As you read the account in Luke's gospel, or as you simply recall the impact the parable had had in your life, perhaps it might be spiritually helpful if you consider which of the roles you believe to be yours:  the father, the son or the older brother.  Without doubt, I am  certain, most of us have been in circumstances where we may have had the heart of each of the three men in our own heart.  In my life for sure, there have been days when I know I am no better than the prodigal son.  I have been extraordinarily forgiven by God.  And there are those days when I have been called upon to deal with others just as God has dealt with me, just as the father has dealt with his returning son.  And, of course, there have been moments when I have been no better than the older brother in the parable.

Back to the first thought:  and where is mercy in my life?  How have I reached out to those who have offended me, others or God?  Have I put myself above those people who failed in one way or another?

Has mercy been a part of my life?  Do I truly understand what "mercy" is?

It is with these thoughts that I bring to a close what has been a wonderful experience for a goodly period of my life, since October 6, 2006.  Little did I ever imagine that I would be publishing my spiritual thoughts on an international medium.  Little did I ever consider that my prayer and reflection would be of some inspiration to men and women in so many different places.

Well, I have come to a time when I need to absent myself from the blogasphere for a time.  Of course there are immediate questions like "Why?" and "Are you okay?"  There are more than a few reasons that have brought me to this decision.  At the moment because of several other obligations that have taken up much of my time and with the prospect of moving from the area in the not too distant future, I have decided it was time to stop "Prayer on the Hill."  

I have always enjoyed challenging myself with the work of the blog.  It is because of this enjoyment that I mentioned that I would be absenting myself "for a time."  After several months away from the blog project, it is my hope to come back to the public writing, renewed, refreshed and charged with new excitement for such a project.  As a priest, I have always been grateful to the responses that have come forth from the reading public of this blog.  It has been humbling to say the least.

Your attention and support has been a gift that few experience.  You will always be in my prayers as I pray, as I read, as I preach.  May I ask that you occasionally take the time to offer a prayer for me.

May God bless each of you each and every day of your life.  As I learned while a Jesuit:  "Oremus pro invicem!"  Let up pray for one another!

Alert. Be On The Alert.

Today's 1st Reading

[1 Thes 5:1-6, 9-11]

The first reading to today's reflection is the final reading from Paul's letter to the Thessalonian for this Liturgical Year.  We will return to this letter about the same time next year.

Paul is concerned that the people of Thessalonica have a proper understanding of the subject of the Lord's coming.  This reading can be summarized in single words such as "watchfulness", "alert", or perhaps that word "times and seasons."

The Day of the Lord seemed to be a major concern among the people of Thessalonica: some were trying like folks of our generation to set the day and the time when they would experience the return of the Lord.  Others had given up work because for them there was a surety that the Lord was expected any day soon.

Paul's writing was to scotch [a cob-web word I found in the dusty corner of my dictionary!] such an idea or expectation.

"The Day of the Lord" is rooted in Amos 5:18.  For the OT folks it was a time when God would come again and this time put before us judgement or blessing.  It stands as the final moment of and for all things.  Paul believes this moment of the Lord will only come when folks believe all things are quiet and peaceful.

Paul teaches that we should not forget that we are children of the light.  Christians are for each other and all others children of the light.  That mean we should be wiewidede awake and alert and have control of our senses.

Today we need to be in balance between being ready to be called at any moment of any day but at the same time we should not be burdened by worrying about when and how we will be exiting this life on earth.  We can best be prepared by living always in the present moment:  "seeking, finding and responding to God in every person and in every experience of every moment of every day."  Do this and there will be no surprises!!!  Deo Gratias!!!